How Renault is cutting costs through more synergies with Nissan

Thierry Bollore: "What is at stake is to have the highest ratio possible of common parts and common part numbers for everything the customer does not see."

Renault Chief Competitive Officer Thierry Bollore has the task of boosting synergies with alliance partner Nissan in his role as head of product development, manufacturing and the supply chain for the French automaker. Bollore is joint No. 2 at Renault with Chief Performance Officer Jerome Stoll, who oversees sales and marketing. Bollore spoke with Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs.

By 2020, Renault-Nissan aims to build 70 percent of alliance models on common module family (CMF) platforms. How many CMF platforms will there be?

We have CMF A, CMF B and CMF C-D. The Twingo has its own platform shared with Daimler. What is at stake is to have the highest ratio possible of common parts and common part numbers for everything the customer does not see.

What are the benefits of CMF platforms?

When you bundle purchasing, you massively increase the quantity of parts when you negotiate contracts with suppliers.

The Nissan Qashqai and Renault Espace are the first cars on CMF C-D and the first CMF A car will be built in India next year. When is the first CMF B car coming?

We have subcompact cars on subcompact modules already. We are making a lot of progress from generation to generation.

Meet the CCO

NAME: Thierry Bollore

TITLE: Renault Group Chief Competitive Officer

AGE: 51

MAIN CHALLENGE: Lowering production and development costs while expanding Renault's lineup as the brand pushes into new markets such as China.

Renault-Nissan’s “convergence plan” to closer integrate engineering, manufacturing, purchasing and human resources calls for savings through synergies to rise to 4.3 billion euros by 2016 from 2.8 billion euros in 2013. How is that going?

We are working with the converged functions of the alliance. Since last November we have converged a big chunk of our engineering, our industrial base and of course purchasing.

New Renault cars such as the Clio subcompact have won praise for their designs. How important is design for the brand?

We do tests with customers to get a very detailed reaction against the competition. If the design is not very far ahead of all the competitors, we don’t choose it for the next car. The improved attractiveness of our cars has improved sales.

The new Scenic minivan is a key upcoming launch, but sales of minivans are declining. How will the Scenic counter this?

We will be just as creative as we have been in the past. It will be an astonishing design. We are confident that it is going to have a significant impact on our target customers. It has tested well.

The regulations are extremely expensive to meet and at the end of the day you amortize the choice of diesel against gasoline much later.

Will Renault launch a plug-in hybrid?

We have plug-in hybrids in mind for potential future cars. We are envisaging what we can do, but it depends on the markets.

Will plug-in hybrids gain ground significantly in Europe?

Regulation will be a key element, along with individual markets and the type of cars sold as plug-in hybrids. China is an example of how regulation can change the market. When I lived in China, I saw a newspaper picture in Guangzhou of mountains of discarded mopeds with internal combustion engines because the state one day decided to ban mopeds with internal combustion engines. This kind of thing can happen.

Renault will start production in China in 2016. What models are you going to build first?

We’ll start with a C (compact) crossover and D (midsize) crossover.

Are these China-only cars?

They have a global design, but it’s a design that has been tested with a lot of success with Chinese customers. They are brand-new cars.